What is innovative about this project?

  • Social innovation: Delivering SME-friendly, innovation and partnership procurement.
  • Project Planning & Management: Ensuring a combination of purposes possible through spatial planning and urban planning approaches.

ÖrebroBostäder was the first public housing provider in Sweden to include as a condition in the procurement the obligation to hire jobless inhabitants as construction workers for a limited period. In addition, the planning of the intervention aimed at fostering social cohesion in the neighbourhood.

Local Partnership

  • Company: Skanska, White Arkitekter
  • Municipality: Municipality of Örebro
  • Housing provider: ÖrebroBostäder
  • Other: Swedish Tenants Organisation, Swedish Ministry of Employment

In 2010, the public housing organisation ÖrebroBostäder initiated a strategic partnership agreement with the construction company Skanska and the architectural firm White Arkitekter for the renovation of Vivalla district, in Örebro. Residents of the housing complex were involved in the planning with the collaboration of the Swedish Tenants Organisation. They organised workshops (also for kids) to understand and incorporate residents’ needs and preferences. Additionally, thanks to a novel bid specification, Skanska temporarily hired 80 jobless residents to carry out the renovation and construction work of the neighbourhood. The Swedish Ministry of Employment assisted Skanska and ÖrebroBostäder in organising frequent informative meetings and interviews with residents. The Municipality of Örebro supported ÖrebroBostäder by monitoring and approving the changes in the urban planning of the area.

Key Facts

  • Year of construction: 1960
  • Renovation period: the planning started in 2009, the renovation in 2011 and still ongoing. The district has been already partly renovated. However 20 years of works are still foreseen for the entirety of the district.
  • Area of intervention (m²): approximately 80 square metres per apartment
  • Number of dwellings (before/after): 900 before and 800 after
  • Housing typology: multi-apartment buildings
  • Housing tenure: public rental housing
  • Number of residents: around 9,500-10,000
  • Shared facilities: a school, commercial shops, green urban spaces and playgrounds for children, around 10 common rooms that can be rented by tenants, the educational centre “Trainstation”.

Financial information

  • Funding sources: loan with market interest rate
  • Total cost of renovation (€): around 100.000€ per flat
  • Subsidies received (€): no subsidies
  • Rent before and after renovation (€/month): before: 90€/m2/year, after: 125€/m2/year
  • Energy bill (€/month): lower overall after renovations.

Context

The Vivalla neighbourhood in Örebro was constructed in the late 1960s as a part of the Swedish government public housing “Million Programme”. In Vivalla, there is a significant rate of unemployment and salaries are lower than the national average. Due to its high level of criminality, it was for long considered as a no-go zone by the police, as shootings and skirmishes were rampant. More than 85% of residents are foreigners and some of them do not speak Swedish. The area, despite being the same size of a small town, lacked amenities and services, and was physically cut-off from the rest of the city.

Goals

  • Improve the conditions of buildings (old and derelict).
  • Lower the unemployment rate among residents and facilitate their access to the job market.
  • Increase the quality of the living environment for residents.

Interventions

  • Buildings were demolished in key locations to give way for wider green residential passageways.
  • Buildings entrances were changed to create meeting spaces for the neighbours.
  • Renovation of façades and insulation of gables.
  • Installation of new windows.
  • Installation of solar panels.
  • Installation of heat pumps.
  • Construction of new roofs with sedum coating (green roofs).
  • Installation of new ventilation systems.
  • Policy change in flat allocation to counteract segregation: 75% of residents must have an income (so not being entirely dependent from subsidies of the government).
  • Consultations with religious leaders to understand how to counteract segregation.
  • Addition of a procurement requirement for builders: work is to be offered to at least 80 unemployed people living the area in the first four years (each of them works approximately for one year).
  • Opening of the education centre “Trainstation” where young people can learn to play an instrument, learn photography or gain digital and IT skills.

Impact

The renovation is expected to last for at least 20 years. Energy consumption was reduced: from 210 kW/m2/year to 75kW/m2/year. Last but not least, there has been a drastic reduction of criminality levels in the renovated areas.
A large amount of people who were employed by Skanska found a job or started their studies, encouraged by the positive references provided by the company or new learned skills. Statistics from the police show that in Vivalla there has been a reduction in the number of crimes by just over 10 percent compared to before the renovation, and vandalism occurrences have halved.

Advice to future “Lighthouse Districts”

  • Learn by doing and deal with large projects such as the one in Vivalla in smaller subdivisions. This enables learning lessons from previous phases and gradually adjust the planning accordingly.
  • Involve residents by including specific conditions in the procurement.

Sources

https://www.obo.se/nyheter-press/brottsligheten-har-minskat-och-tryggheten-okat-i-vivalla/
https://www.trainstation.se/
https://group.skanska.com/projects/57906/Vivalla%2C-Orebro
https://whitearkitekter.com/project/vivalla-orebro/